November 12 2014

November 6 2014 Greetings My Friend, I know a retired couple who are now missionaries overseas. I met a lady missionary yesterday that retired from her lifelong career and is now overseas doing mission work. There is Kerner Sanders who took fried chicken to another level in his older years. I hear these stories often and it starts to soak in that because I’ve hit my 60’s does not mean that it is time to sit in a corner and wait for life to end. A friend wrote about Spiritual Gifts yesterday and how to know yours. It is a process of talking to God and stepping out in faith. For me mine began in a small way. I loved writing and wrote Junior notes each day before I left for work so when he got home he had a “hug” from me since our shifts were several hours apart. He started encouraging me to write and I began asking God where to use my talent. A friend mentored me and then I helped write a newsletter. Along the way Junior and I hosted a workshop for the remarrieds so we learned and grew in our marriage and also how to reach out to other remarried couples. As I retired I started writing in earnest and I feel like I’ve been on a journey of growth and purpose. As a young woman I tried teaching Sunday school and that just wasn’t my calling. Later a minister asked my ex and I to be advisors to the teens in the church. That time period was wonderful. I grew and learned much during those 15 years. The older I got though the less energy I had. I knew it was time to move on. Even today I long to work with teens again but my health just won’t let me so I don’t. I do write though. I love writing and sharing my journey and how God has brought me peace and purpose and these days life is sweet. It is sweet even with health issues that slow me down a lot. God’s work is a life long journey and what I did back years ago does not mean it is what I will be doing tomorrow. I like learning to do new things so I am grateful that God continues to call me into service for His glory. As I learn to listen to God’s promptings I find myself immersed in ministry for Him. The changes are often a process of learning and then stepping out in faith at God’s promptings. For years I admired my mother-in-law’s homemaker ways. I loved watching her cook, she did teach me a lot, I loved watching her clean, she did it with a sense of pride. I longed to be a homemaker and I was but I was also a working mother. Retirement has allowed me to be a homemaker again and I love it. I love making Junior healthy meals. I love putting the house in order on a daily basis. I can’t whip through housework like I did when I was younger but these days that is okay because I’ve learned to do it on and off all day long. Some days we run so I play catch up again on the days we quit running. I like that too. As I sit and rest I write and my writing career takes shape rather nicely. At first it was a weekly blog, then I started writing 3 days a week. My cousin set me up a 2nd Facebook page to help me advertise my book and to begin a journey of writing about my day to day walk on a day to day basis. With this page and my blog I have just enough writing work to do for the Lord. I feel like I have a purpose a direction in my life. From time to time Junior also find ourselves reaching out to people within our community and I also love ministering to Junior. Ministering isn’t always an upfront important type of work. It is sometimes the quiet unheard of work and the longer I live the more I love the behind the scenes work a lot. I learn that ministering is an ongoing endeavor taking on many different looks and sizes. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet